Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier has had a mixed World Superbike weekend at Portimao with a strong first race where he finished in fourth tempered by an apparent gear linkage problem that ended his hopes of a podium finish after only eleven laps in the second outing.
The Brit is taking away some positives from the weekend, and did improve in both races today. Before the technical issue in race two, Camier was setting some consistently fast laps, and made his way from fourteenth to eighth, showing he had the race pace to compete with the rest of the grid.
“I had a problem at the start, but I think I could have got into the rhythm of going quicker and that last lap felt good. But I didn’t feel that strong on the brakes, maybe because I had a full fuel tank, and the wind changed direction and I couldn’t quite perform. In the last laps I tried to progress to get through,” said Camier, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the circuit.
Camier is content with the progress he has made and his race pace this weekend. He also feels that the bike is continuing to improve. In race one the Englishman had a battle with fellow Brit Chaz Davies but managed to outbrake the Welshman, who is very strong on the stoppers. Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea was riding high in fifth but retired with a technical problem promoting Camier to fourth.
Camier then found enough pace to beat the Kawasaki of Loris Baz and ended the race in fourth, nine seconds behind podium men, GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri, Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty and Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes.
“I feel good because I feel we made some progress and moved forward, the bike feeling is coming good and I am happy with how I am riding. The speed of the bike has improved a good chunk. I ruled the slipstream on Chaz and pulled out, and did him on the brakes in the first corner.
“I beat two people on the brakes into turn one twice, and made some big passes which is really good. I was happy with that. We made changes to the bike before Superpole, and for the race the bike felt pretty good again, so I feel pretty happy.”
